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May 20, 2004

Torture Update. The Pentagon can't keep its stories straight. ... UPI: "Efforts at the top level of the Bush administration ... to contain the Iraq prison torture scandal and limit the blame to a handful of enlisted soldiers and immediate senior officers have already failed." ... Another disc of pictures has surfaced; two new photos from Abu Ghraib have been released.

"[A] new war crime investigation will have to be initiated soon: allegations on the slaughter of Iraqi civilians during the siege of Falluja." ... Videotapes of guards beatingprisoners at Guantanamo Bay are being provided to senate investigators. ... There are calls for a congressional probe into whether the Justice Department lied to the Supreme Court last month when it stated the US does not engage in torture.

Sgt. Samuel Provance claims intelligence officers were calling the shots at Abu Ghraib: "There's definitely a cover-up." ... Denver Post: "Pentagon records provide the clearest view yet of the US tactics used at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere to coax secrets from Iraqis." There are also multiple reports of soldiers abusing women and children.

US helicopter gunships and ground troops attacked what Iraqis said was a wedding celebration. Approxmiately 40 people were killed, "mainly women and children below the age of 12" according to the director of a nearby hospital. News footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies, many wrapped in blankets, piled one atop the other. Several were those of children; one was decapitated."

Finally: The US has circulated a draft Security Council resolution to give US peacekeeping troops another one year exemption from prosecution by the world court at The Hague.